Tartans Defeat Case Western and Win Back Obelisk Trophy

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's track and field team dominated in the Fifth Annual Battle for the Obelisk on Saturday, February 2 at Case Western Reserve University as the men's and women's program won by a score of 149-105. The Tartan men won their half by a score of 88-39.

Senior Noel Titus (Bronx, N.Y./Choate Rosemary Hall) led with two victories, winning the 55-meter dash in a career-best time of 6.71 and the 200-meter dash in 23.56. Junior Daniel Ching (Trout Valley, Ill./The Culver Academies) was second in the 200-meter dash in 23.93 and won the 55-meter hurdles in 7.88.

Sophomore Douglas O'Connell (Rye, N.Y./Fordham Prep) led a sweep of the 400-meter dash with a time of 52.06. Junior Mike Standish (Washington, Pa./Trinity) was second in 52.73 and senior Ben Nealy (Egg Harbor Twp., N.J./Egg Harbor Twp.) finished third in 52.79.

Sophomore Thomas Vandenberg (Mamaroneck, N.Y./Mamaroneck) won the 800-meter run in 2:03.42 with freshman Thomas Mayo-Smith taking third in 2:04.41.

Junior Josh Newby (Palo Alto, Calif./Palo Alto) finished the mile run in second place with a time of 4:30.04 as junior Ken Murphy (Carlisle, Pa./Cumberland Valley) was third in 4:32.33.

Senior Evan Gates (Pittsburgh, Pa./Thomas Jefferson) ran the 5,000-meter run in 15:04.64 for the win with sophomore George Degen (Madison, Wis./West) finishing second in 15:13.19.

Both the 4x400 meter relay and the distance medley relay took first place on Saturday with the 4x400 finishing in 3:31.75 and the distance medley finishing in 10:24.90.

In field events, sophomore Mike McDermott (Seekonk, Mass./La Salle Academy) won the high jump clearing 1.87 meters and the long jump, leaping 6.17 meters. He also finished second in the pole vault, clearing a career-best 4.40 meters. In the triple jump, freshman Max Reinertsen (Esko, Minn./Esko) was second with a distance of 12.24 meters and freshman Patrick Chang (Millbrae, Calif./Mills) was third with a distance of 11.85 meters.

Junior Zachary Erra-Hernandez (Las Cruces, N.M./Onate) led a sweep in the shot put with a mark of 15.53 meters with sophomore Gino Pilato (Greensburg, Pa./Hempfield Area) placing second hitting 14.17 meters and junior Nathan Cheek (Lancaster, Ohio/Lancaster) taking third with a career indoor mark of 14.14 meters. Cheek then finished second in the weight throw with a career mark of 16.48 meters.

The Tartans will next travel to Lewisburg, Pa., for the Bucknell University Indoor Meet on Saturday, February 9.